Distributed systems exist that consist of a number of similar sites geographically distributed that perform similar types of tasks. Examples of these systems are franchise systems, sales offices of a company, and clinical drug trials. It may be desirable to monitor data generated at these sites to ensure uniformity of operation and integrity of the data. Such quality monitoring may be performed on site or remotely.
Looking at clinical drug trials as an example of such distributed systems, in the United States and other countries, marketing approval for pharmaceuticals and medical devices typically requires testing on humans. Through the testing process, which includes clinical trials, clinical data concerning the safety, efficacy, as well as other critical attributes of the tested drug or device are typically collected for submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other regulatory agency. In the United States alone, tens of thousands of clinical trials are run annually, involving millions of volunteers. These volunteers are generally tested at a variety of locations, known as clinical sites, and each site generates data regarding the drug or device under investigation as well as data regarding the testing process itself.
Because there are so many distributed test sites, the sites are generally monitored to ensure data integrity across the sites and the clinical trial. Because on-site monitoring of clinical trials, which usually entails traveling to each site numerous times, can use over 30% of a drug company's clinical trial budget, on-site monitoring represents one of the largest cost drivers in clinical research.
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